Many people today, by virtue of their many business commitments, can only spend a few minutes a day in exercising. If you are in this category, you need to perform exercises that will provide the health benefits that you want even if the actual time of your workouts is very limited.
Thankfully, there are such exercises which offer this kind of benefit. But you must really be committed to doing these exercises if you really want to enjoy a disease-free and active life. Anyways, these exercises can be accomplished in just a few minutes in any Crunch Fitness gym or Snap Fitness gym so it won’t be encroaching on your other more important concerns.
1. Stability Ball Pushup and Jackknife
Place your shins on a stability ball and take up a pushup position. Have your arms straight and hands shoulder-width apart. While keeping your body straight, start to lower your chest until it is about to touch the floor. Pause for a few seconds, and then quickly push back up to your original position.
Next, while keeping your back straight, bend your knees to pull the stability ball toward you. Pause and then reverse the movement in returning to your original position. Repeat these movements six times.
2. Intensive Jumping
Aggressively start your exercise routine with 20 jumping jacks. This will take you less than a minute to complete but it will activate your upper and lower body muscles. It will also quickly raise your heart rate and body temperature. This is preferable than a lengthy workout which tend to cause fatigue.
3. Fight Gravity
The bent-knee deadlift is a great way to challenge your muscles. It will build your lean muscles fast because it is a great metabolism booster. Put a pair of heavy dumbbells on the floor. If you can lift 15 pounds dumbbell, that would be better. Squat down to grab the dumbbells and quickly stand up. This exercise will push your hips forward and squeeze your gluteus muscle. Repeat the movements 10 times.
4. Increase your speed lift
A research conducted at Anderson and Ball State universities showed that exercisers who quickened the pace of their weight-lifting workouts burned 70 more calories on the average than weightlifters that performed their workout at their regular pace.
5. Clean and Press Windmill
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and place a dumbbell between them (preferably weighing 8 to 10 pounds). Quickly assume a squatting position with your knees behind your toes, and grasp the dumbbell with your left hand. Rise up quickly and stand bringing the dumbbell toward your left shoulder and then push it overhead.
Bend your waist toward your right side placing your right hand inside your right leg. Continue bending until your right hand slides down to your right foot and maintaining your left hand overhead. The go back to your original squatting position and continue these movements for 60 seconds. Switch hands and position and repeat the same movements for another 60 seconds.
6. Make the Beats Faster
It is best to have music playing while doing your exercises. And if you are pressed in time, you can get the same results of a long workout if you will choose music that is within 125 to 140 beats per minute with lively and energetic lyrics. This will force your body to move faster, thus burn more calories within a shorter period.
Some of the current music that are within this range of beats per minute are “Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) by the Pussycat Dolls, “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5, “The Time (Dirty Bit)” by the Black Eyed Peas, “What Are You Waiting For” by Gwen Stefani, and so forth.
7. Increase the intensity of your cardio exercises
A study conducted by the University of New South Wales showed that women who performed 20 minutes of cycling sprint intervals were able to reduce three times of fat in 15 weeks than those who just performed regular and even-cycling in twice the time.
HIIT or high intensity interval training which is a combination of short bursts of intense exercises interrupted by short recovery breaks are a time saving way of getting your body in shape.
After warming up, perform a 30-second sprint, the fastest you can do, and then follow it with 90 seconds of comfortable and easy jogging. Repeat the sequence six times and then spend 5 minutes in cooling down.
8. Increase your incline
If you add a little incline on your treadmill, about 6 per cent of the normal flat run or walk that you are accustomed to, you will able to burn an additional 15 per cent more calories. It is a given that the higher the ramp, the more calories you will be able to burn, regardless of your speed, and without adding a single minute on your routine.